Both alcohol consumption and clothing that is labeled provocative have been shown to increase people’s negative judgment towards women in a sexual aggression situation. Two experiments assessed the role that these two factors play in conjunction with one another. Experiment One assessed the types of women’s clothing that college students consider provocative or conservative, as well as an independent rating of how fashionable students consider the clothing. The photographs rated as most provocative, conservative and fashionable were used in Experiment Two. In Experiment Two, participants read an incident/police report, accompanied by the photograph of a woman wearing either a provocative outfit or a conservative outfit, as determined by Experiment One. The incident/police report is about a woman who reported a sexual assault. In one report, she reported drinking beforehand; in the alternate version, she reported being completely sober. Participants will then make judgments of the man’s versus the woman’s responsibility. The Attitudes towards Women Scale (AWS) (Spence, Helmreich, & Stapp, 1973) and the Revised Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire will also be completed. Results will be analyzed using a repeated measures analysis of variance in Experiment One and in Experiment Two, a between subjects 2 x 2 factorial analysis of variance. Expected results are a main effect for clothing type and for alcohol. Further, an interaction is expected with a woman dressed provocatively and consuming alcohol on a date viewed as much more responsible for sexual assault (a synergistic versus an additive effect)
